Paramount Airways was an

airline An airline is a company that provides civil aviation, air transport services for traveling passengers and freight. Airlines use aircraft to supply these services and may form partnerships or Airline alliance, alliances with other airlines for ...

based in

Chennai Chennai (, ), formerly known as Madras ( the official name until 1996), is the capital city of Tamil Nadu, the southernmost Indian state. The largest city of the state in area and population, Chennai is located on the Coromandel Coast of th ...

India India, officially the Republic of India (Hindi: ), is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by area, the second-most populous country, and the most populous democracy in the world. Bounded by the Indian Ocean on the so ...

. It operated scheduled services, mainly targeting business travellers until it ceased operations in 2010. Its hub was

Chennai International Airport Chennai International Airport is an international airport serving the city of Chennai, Tamil Nadu and its metropolitan area. It is located in Tirusulam, southwest of the city centre. Chennai International Airport is the sixth busiest airpo ...

and was the first airline in India to launch the New Generation Embraer 170/190 Family series aircraft. The airline started operations in October 2005 with the company headquartered in

Madurai Madurai ( , also , ) is a major city in the Indian state of Tamil Nadu. It is the cultural capital of Tamil Nadu and the administrative headquarters of Madurai District. As of the 2011 census, it was the third largest Urban agglomeration in ...

. It operated to regional destinations in south and eastern India until early 2010.

Decline

The airline ceased operations when legal issues arose between Paramount Airways and the lessors of their Embraer aircraft. These events caused a gradual termination of all services as the fleet was grounded and seized by the leasing companies. In November 2010, it was announced that Paramount Airways had won their legal battle and were set to resume services with a fleet of

Airbus Airbus SE (; ; ; ) is a European Multinational corporation, multinational aerospace corporation. Airbus designs, manufactures and sells civil and military aerospace manufacturer, aerospace products worldwide and manufactures aircraft througho ...

and Bombardier aircraft. Normalisation of the route network was scheduled for December 2010, but did not materialise.Paramount Airways to take to the skies again
/ref> A British court awarded the airline Rs 1,650 crore as compensation in a lawsuit with

GECAS GECAS (GE Capital Aviation Services) was an Irish–American commercial aviation financing and leasing company. AerCap acquired the company from GE Capital on November 1, 2021. GECAS was the largest commercial airline leasing/financing company in ...

in November 2012. Paramount renewed its operating licence from the DGCA in the same month and planned to start afresh, initially concentrating on its earlier stronghold of the southern Indian states and also Mysore, Tuticorin and Puducherry. However, its lenders including

Bank of India Bank of India (BOI) is an Indian public sector bank headquartered in Bandra Kurla Complex, Mumbai. Founded in 1906, it has been government-owned since nationalisation in 1969. BoI is a founder member of SWIFT (Society for Worldwide Inter B ...

State Bank of India State Bank of India (SBI) is an Indian multinational public sector bank and financial services statutory body headquartered in Mumbai, Maharashtra. SBI is the 49th largest bank in the world by total assets and ranked 221st in the ''Fortune ...

Central Bank of India Central Bank of India (CBI) is an Indian public sector bank based in Mumbai. Despite its name, it is not the central bank of India; The Indian central bank is the Reserve Bank of India. History The Central Bank of India was established on ...

Andhra Bank Andhra Bank was a medium-sized public sector bank (PSB) of India, with a network of 2885 branches, 4 extension counters, 38 satellite offices and 3798 automated teller machines (ATMs) as of 31 March 2019. During 2011–12, the bank entered t ...

Indian Bank Indian Bank is an Indian public sector bank, established in 1907 and headquartered in Chennai. It serves over 100 million customers with 39,734 employees, 5,721 branches with 5,428 ATMs and Cash deposit machines. Total business of the bank has ...

and

IDBI Bank The IDBI Bank Limited (IDBI Bank or IDBI) is a development finance institution under the ownership of Life Insurance Corporation of India and Government of India. It was established in 1964 as Industrial Development Bank of India, a developmen ...

to whom Paramount owed around Rs. 550 Crore, wrote to the DGCA in February 2013, asking the regulator to prevent the airline from restarting operations before it settled its dues. The airline planned to restart operations by May 2013 with six ATR-72-600 aircraft, however, six banks that had extended loans to the airline wrote to the Directorate General of Civil Aviation asking the regulator to prevent the airline from restarting operations before it settled its dues. On 6 May 2016, The CBI has registered a case against promoters of Paramount Airways on allegations of defrauding, diverting loan amount, and cheating public sector banks. Searches were being carried out at seven locations at Chennai and Madurai, including residential and office premises of its promoter Thyagrajan and the company functionaries.

Destinations

Paramount Airways mainly provided services to cities in South India. In 2009. it extended services into eastern India, serving the cities of

Kolkata Kolkata (, or , ; also known as Calcutta , the official name until 2001) is the capital of the Indian state of West Bengal, on the eastern bank of the Hooghly River west of the border with Bangladesh. It is the primary business, comme ...

Guwahati Guwahati (, ; formerly rendered Gauhati, ) is the biggest city of the Indian state of Assam and also the largest metropolis in northeastern India. Dispur, the capital of Assam, is in the circuit city region located within Guwahati and is the ...

, and

Agartala Agartala () is the capital city of the Indian state of Tripura, and is one of the largest cities in northeast India. The city is governed by the Agartala Municipal Corporation. The city is the seat of the Government of Tripura. It is located on ...

Fleet

The Paramount Airways fleet consisted of Embraer E170s, and was the first airline in India to operate this aircraft. On 20 June 2009, Paramount Airways signed a MoU to buy ten

Airbus A321-200 The Airbus A321 is a member of the Airbus A320 family of short to medium range, narrow-body, commercial passenger twin engine jet airliners; it carries 185 to 236 passengers. It has a stretched fuselage which was the first derivative of the b ...

aircraft with an option for an additional ten. The agreement was concluded at the 48th

Paris Air Show The Paris Air Show (french: Salon international de l'aéronautique et de l'espace de Paris-Le Bourget, Salon du Bourget) is a trade fair and air show held in odd years at Paris–Le Bourget Airport in north Paris, France. Organized by the French ...

and was to be funded by the

European Central Bank The European Central Bank (ECB) is the prime component of the monetary Eurosystem and the European System of Central Banks (ESCB) as well as one of seven institutions of the European Union. It is one of the world's Big Four (banking)#Intern ...

. It also ordered six

Bombardier Dash 8 Q400 The De Havilland Canada DHC-8, commonly known as the Dash 8, is a series of turboprop-powered regional airliners, introduced by de Havilland Canada (DHC) in 1984. DHC was later bought by Boeing in 1988, then by Bombardier in 1992; then by ...

s. However, the deals did not materialise.

Awards and recognition

*Paramount Airways won the "Arch of Europe" Award in the year 2007 in Frankfurt. *Paramount Airways was awarded the "Award of Excellence" conferred by the Institute of Economic Studies

References

External links

Official websiteParamount Airways fleetParamount Embraer 175 at Bangalore
{{Airlines of India Defunct airlines of India Airlines established in 2005 Airlines disestablished in 2010 Indian companies disestablished in 2010 Indian companies established in 2005 Companies based in Chennai 2005 establishments in Tamil Nadu